SHURUGWI – A Shurugwi family nearly buried a wrong body of a relative who was severely dismembered by a debilitating cancer had it not been for the twin brother who checked for several marks on the deceased’s body including the private part.

The Gundani family from Shayamavhudzi Village under Chief Shayamavhudzi collected the wrong body of Jacob Gundani from Shurugwi Hospital Mortuary.

Gundani who passed away last week after a long battle with cancer was in a sorry state that his relatives could not recognise him by looking at his face.

Esaul Gundani the twin brother of Jacob the late saved the family from further tragedy when he told the elders during body viewing that the person they had collected was not his brother. Gilbert Machacha, one of the mourners said people initially could not believe Esaul when he raised the issue.

“At first we could not believe Esaul as we thought that he only wanted to cause chaos, so we requested him to support his claims and give detailed evidence” said Machacha.

Esaul then told the mourners of two prominent scars that his brother had and they were one on his left foot and the other one on his private part.

“We decided to stop the burial after quarrels and check if what Esaul had said was true. We checked for the marks on the corpse and there was none,” added Machacha.

“I grew up with Jacob and there was no way I could not identify my brother. I then decided to tell my relatives who doubted me the prominent marks that I knew on his body,” said Esaul.

“When we could not find the marks we then decided to go back to the mortuary to look for my brother and I managed to identify my brother with all the marks I knew he had, and we brought him home for burial,” said Esaul. – Masvingo Mirror